UNITED COCONUT CHEMICALS, INC.,vs. VICTORIANO B. VALMORES. G.R. No. 201018.

12 July
2017. THIRD DIVISION. BERSAMIN.

Parties:

Petitioner - UNITED COCONUT CHEMICALS, INC.,

Respondent - VICTORIANO B. VALMORES

The settled rule is that full backwages shall be pegged at the wage rate at the time of
the employee's dismissal, unqualified by any deductions and increases which means that the
employee is paid at the wage rate at the time of his dismissal. Award

UCCI hired Victoriano as its Senior Utilities Inspector. He then became a member of the company’s
union until his expulsion. Due to the expulsion, UELO formally demanded that UCCI terminate the services
of the respondent pursuant to the union security clause of the CBA. UCCI dismissed him. He filed a
complaint for illegal dismissal in the NLRC which ruled in his favor and ordered UCCI to reinstate Victoriano
to his former position without loss of seniority rights and with full backwages from the date of dismissal on
22 February 1996 to the date of actual reinstatement. The LA used the sum representing Victoriano’s wage
rate at the time of his dismissal and included in the computation 13th month pay and SIL but excluded CBA-
granted benefits. Is the computation correct?

Yes. Backwages include all benefits previously
 enjoyed by the illegally dismissed employee. This has
been set in Article 279 of LC. The base figure (BF) to be used in reckoning full backwages is the salary rate
of the employee at the time of his dismissal. The BF should include not only the basic salary but also the
regular allowances being received, such as the emergency living allowances and the 13th month pay
mandated by the law. The purpose for this is to compensate the worker for what he has lost because of his
dismissal, and penalty on the employer for illegall dismissal. The amount does not include the increases or
benefits granted during the period of his dismissal because time stood still for him at the precise moment of
his termination, and move forward only upon his reinstatement. Hence, the respondent should only receive
backwages that included the amounts being received by him at the time of his illegal dismissal but not the
benefits granted to his co-employees after his dismissal.